West Coast Fever have leap-frogged into second place on the Suncorp Super Netball ladder with a win of last year’s premiers NSW Swifts 80-71 at Nissan Arena on Saturday.
Alice Teague-Neeld was the club’s shining light in the last quarter as she converted four Suncorp super shots that kept the Perth side ahead and claim the nine-goal win. Working alongside today’s MVP of the match, Jhaniele Fowler who scored a competition high of 70 goals, beating her own record of 66 goals, making this duo unstoppable.
Fever’s defensive pressure continues to be the difference between the two teams. Fever Captain Courtney Bruce and goal defender Stacey Francis worked tirelessly in the opening half which saw Fever take an eight-goal half time lead, 39-31.
In the first half Bruce had three intercepts and six deflections, but even those results did not capture the hard work off the ball Bruce was doing to gain front position and forcing turnovers.
There were plenty of big hits in the opening half, involving the tough-as-nails Jess Anstiss with four feeds and two deflections.
The Fever engine room continued to play their part and for majority of the game had control of the mid-court, courtesy of Verity Charles (25 goal assists and 35 feeds) and Emma Cosh (20 goal assists, 23 feeds).
Captain Courtney Bruce said she’s delighted in the way her team has stepped up this season.
“Everyone’s just taken another step forward and everyone is taking that individual accountability,” said Bruce.
“You can see it in the change room, everyone’s just zoned in the moment we get here and really knowing what they need to do to perform and once you have 12 players knowing what they need to do and stepping up, it gets us the outcome that we need.”
West Coast Fever recorded their highest third quarter score for the season with 22 goals to the Swifts 20. They extended their lead by as much as 15 goals after scoring seven in a row.
Fever’s continued fast start to their games this season is becoming difficult for opposition teams to defend and today was no different as Fever took an eight-goal lead into the first break.
